Einsteinhaus Caputh
The Einsteinhaus is a wooden house built in 1929 in Caputh , around six kilometers south of Potsdam . It was lived in from 1929 to 1932 by Albert Einstein and his wife Elsa as well as their two daughters and a domestic worker. It was a summer house, but was used most of the year except for the cold winter months. In May of the Einstein year 2005, the building was reopened as a venue for events and visits after restoration work.
history
At the suggestion of the Lord Mayor of Berlin Gustav Boess , Einstein was to receive a house with a lake property as a gift from the city of Berlin on his 50th birthday. Over a dozen houses were initially proposed by the city. Since some of them were badly located or inhabited, and Einstein did not agree to the tenants' termination, they were not considered for him. After no suitable house had been found, the proposal arose to give Einstein a piece of land so that he could build a house according to his own ideas. However, this process also dragged on. After the press had dealt with the "scandal with the unsuccessful gift from the city of Berlin" and there had been political disputes in the Berlin city council about the intended gift, Einstein decided to forego the gift. Even a letter from the Lord Mayor could no longer change his mind. The Einstein couple finally found a piece of land in Caputh at Waldstrasse 7, where Einstein had a wooden house built at his own expense.
The summer house was built in 1929 by the architect Konrad Wachsmann (1901–1980), a pioneer of industrial construction. Together with the house of Dr. Estrich in Jüterbog , which he also built in 1929, was one of his first works as an independent (freelance) architect. The construction was carried out by the company Christoph & Unmack AG in Niesky in Upper Lusatia, an important manufacturer of wooden houses at the time, for which Wachsmann was employed as chief architect from 1926 to 1929. The Einsteinhaus is located on a slope directly on the edge of the forest with a view of Lake Templin, about 300 meters away . At the end of the 1920s, Caputh had about 3,000 inhabitants, who lived mainly from small businesses such as fruit growing, fishing and handicrafts.
The Einstein couple spent many months in their house, Einstein (although non-swimmer) liked to go on sailing trips on the surrounding waters and enjoyed excursions into nature.
After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists in 1933, Albert and Elsa Einstein never returned to Germany from a trip to the USA. Einstein's property was confiscated by the National Socialists, initially with the exception of the Einstein House, whose owners, which are listed in the land register, were the two stepdaughters. The Einsteinhaus was rented to the neighboring Jewish school home in Caputh , run by Gertrud Urlaub , through a lawyer friend of mine. During this time, Hans Keilson worked there as a physical education teacher. In 1935 the Einsteinhaus was also expropriated and sold to the municipality of Caputh for less than a fifth of the original price. At first it served as a kindergarten and training center for kindergarten teachers. During the Second World War , the house was used by the Wehrmacht .
From 1945 to 1978 the house was rented out as a residential building. Then it was placed under monument protection and in 1979, for Einstein's 100th birthday, restored by the Academy of Sciences of the GDR and then temporarily used as a guest house and memorial. Negotiations about the return of the expropriated house or about compensation for Albert Einstein's heirs dragged on. Today, after a long restitution process, the main owner is the Hebrew University of Jerusalem , which also owns Albert Einstein's literary estate. Since the building was reopened in 2005, it has been managed by the Einstein Forum and used as a venue for workshops, seminars and as a meeting place for important thinkers. Since Albert Einstein did not want a museum himself, it is now used for scientific, cultural and social discourse. The garden house has been used by Einstein scholarship holders since 2007 . The Einsteinhaus is open to the public to a limited extent.
architecture
The Einsteinhaus looks functional, modern and deliberately unadorned. At his own request, Einstein had a wooden house built. The house is partially built with a cellar, it was built using a combination of fixed half-timbered construction and panel and panel construction. With this technique, the basic structure consists of interconnected wooden beams. The outer and inner walls as well as the ceilings were made with wooden panels or boards. The main material was redwood imported from the USA and Galician fir wood was used. The walls have thermal insulation made of peat slabs - "Karbolineum".
The interiors on the ground floor are also relatively dark wood paneled; the wood used gives a dark red color that runs through the basement. The rooms were spartan, although the original furnishings have not been preserved. The large, white French windows, almost all of which reach the floor, are striking. Apart from the spacious living room, the rooms were kept small but functionally furnished. This included built-in cupboards and washing facilities integrated into the walls. Einstein's room on the first floor was both his study and bedroom with a niche bed. Wachsmann originally intended to commission Marcel Breuer to design furniture for the house. However, Einstein did not approve of Breuer's proposals, especially since they reminded him of " an operating room " . Einstein's workplace, from which he had a view over Caputh and the Havel lakes, consisted of a desk with a simple chair and a half-height, sturdy bookcase made of wood. On the upper floor there were rooms for Einstein's two stepdaughters and for the domestic servant.
Guests
Numerous Nobel Prize winners and well-known personalities were guests in Einstein's house. Some of them were:
Quotes
- "The sailing ship, the distant view, the lonely autumn walks, the relative calm, it is a paradise." (Albert Einstein, 1929)
- "Come to Caputh, whistle the world" (Albert Einstein to his son)
- "The Schwielow is broad, comfortable, sunny and has the good nature of all broad-based natures." ( Theodor Fontane )
Web links
- The Einsteinhaus in Caputh at the Einstein Forum
- Exhibition “Einstein's Summer Idyll in Caputh” in the Caputh community center
- Architectural description of the Einstein House
- Caputh near Potsdam. Albert Einstein's summer house was secured and repaired in 2003-2005 (bldam)
- Monument topography Potsdam-Mittelmark, vol. 14.1, 2009, p. 77 f. (2015, bldam)
- Albert Einstein in Caputh, 1929–1932
Individual evidence
- ^ Reopening of Albert Einstein's summer house in Caputh . ( Memento of the original from December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Press release, May 19, 2005
- ↑ Einstein summer house
- ↑ Hans Keilson
- ↑ Peter Hahn: On the reopening of the Einstein House . In: FAZ , May 18, 2005
- ^ Henry Klix: New lateral thinkers for the Einstein House . In: Potsdam Latest News , June 23, 2006
- ↑ Einsteinhaus: The design. Retrieved September 2, 2019 .
Coordinates: 52 ° 21 '0.05 " N , 13 ° 0' 50.61" E